Students who try to bypass rules to enrol in popular schools face eviction

The introduction of year 7 to high schools has prompted a blunt warning for families trying to get around enrolment rules.

Parents who cheat the public school enrolment system have been warned their children will be turfed out if they get caught, as the shift of Year 7 into high schools looms.

The Education Department has warned powers created in legislation passed last year will be used for the first time, as it prepares to cope with the extraordinary influx of students into high schools next year.

A total of $185m is being spent to upgrade high school campuses to take on Year 7s.

There are 21 schools bursting at the seams – including primary, secondary and combined schools – that already have dedicated “capacity-management plans” to enforce their caps and zones. They will all be reviewed before next year.

Enrolment information provided to prospective parents of those schools will include the warning: “The Department for Education Chief Executive has the authority to un-enrol a student if they (parents) are found to have provided false information, such as residential address, to gain entry to the school”.

An artist’s impression of the Roma Mitchell Secondary College.

Adelaide’s new B-12 schools to open next year – Aldinga Payinthi College and Riverbanks College at Angle Vale – will have numbers capped and prospective parents have been told to check online if they fall into those schools’ zones.

Anne Millard, one of the department’s executive directors, said schools had to respond to enrolment demand.

“The number of students enrolled in public schools has been increasing since 2015,” she said.

“In 2015, there were 168,439 students … which has increased to 176,180 in 2020.

“This represents a 4.5 per cent increase in public school enrolments and we expect this growth to continue.”

Reviews of seven schools with capacity management plans have already been completed. For example, Henley High School will have an enrolment ceiling of 260 for each of Year 7 and Year 8 next year. It was previously 210 for Year 8.

Brighton Secondary School’s updated plan removed automatic entry for out-of-zone children with siblings currently at the school.

Roma Mitchell Secondary College’s new plan is designed to cope with its cricket and football specialties which have replaced cycling and hockey.

Mark Oliphant College will have a smaller zone from 2022 due to the new Riverbanks College. The new plan includes “grandfathering” provisions for younger siblings of students from families affected by the zone reduction.

The management plan for Paringa Park Primary School has been removed as new classrooms have increased its capacity.

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